David Gestetner

David Gestetner (March 20, 1854 Csorna - March 18, 1939 London), born in Hungary in the village of Csorna, was the inventor of the Gestetner stencil duplicator, the first piece of office equipment that allowed production of numerous copies of office documents quickly and inexpensively.

Early life

At a young age Gestetner began to work at the stock market in Vienna. One of his tasks was to make copies of the stock market activity at the end of the day by copying the results over and over for each copy. He decided that there had to be a better method, and his experiments eventually led him to invent the first method of reproducing documents by use of a stencil.

The Device

The stencil method used a thin sheet of paper coated with wax (originally kite paper was used), which was written upon with a special stylus that left a broken line through the stencil - breaking the paper and removing the wax covering. Ink was forced through the stencil - originally by an ink roller - and it left its impression on a white sheet of paper below the stencil. This was repeated again and again until sufficient copies were produced.

Until this time "short copy runs" (as opposed to long print runs) which were needed for the conduct of a business (e.g. for the production of 10-50 copies of contracts, agreements, letters etc.) had to be copied by hand. After they were copied, business partners had to read each one of the copies to ensure that they were all exactly the same. The process was time consuming and frustrating for all. The stencil copy method meant that only one copy had to be read, as all copies were made from one stencil and thus had to be identical.

David Gestetner eventually moved to London, England and in 1881 established the Gestetner Cyclograph Company to produce stencils, styli, ink rollers etc. He guarded his invention through patents. The Gestetner works opened in 1906 at Tottenham Hale, north London, employed several thousand people until the 1970s. His invention became an overnight international success, and he soon established an international chain of branches that sold and serviced his products. During the ensuing years he further developed his invention, with the stencil eventually being placed on a screen wrapped around a pair of revolving drums, onto which ink was placed. The drums were revolved and ink, spread evenly across the surface of the screen by a pair of cloth-covered rollers, was forced through the cuts made in the stencil and transferred onto a sheet of paper which was fed through the duplicator and pressed by pressure rollers against the lower drum. Each complete rotation of the screen fed and printed one sheet. After the first typewriter was invented, a stencil was created which could be typed on, thus creating copies similar to printed newspapers and books, instead of handwritten material.

Social Effects

The stencil duplicator can be looked upon as a predecessor of the internet, in that it provided individuals with a means to produce and distribute their own uncensored and uncontrolled ideas and distribute them in public places (near factories, churches, government offices, parks etc.). Previously, producing mass numbers of copies required the cooperation of owners of printing presses, which required a large amount of capital. Owners of presses would not agree to publish opinions contrary to their own interest.

The Gestetner Company expanded quickly during the start and middle of the 20th century. Management was passed on to David Gestetner's son, Sigmund, and from him to his sons, David and Jonathan. Gestetner acquired other companies during the years: Nashua (later changed to Nashuatec), Rex Rotary, Hanimex and Savin. Eventually a holding company was set up called NRG (N=Nashuatec, R= Rex Rotary, G= Gestetner). In 1996 the international Gestetner Company was acquired by the Ricoh company of Japan. The company was renamed NRG Group, and markets and services Ricoh products under its three main brand names, primarily in Europe, South Africa and the Middle East, but also through dealers throughout the world.

Sources

• Biographical Dictionary of Management, Thoemmes Continuum (for life dates)
• "Before Copies", Graphic Com Central

Proudfoot, W.B.: The Origin of Stencil Duplicating, Hutchinson of London, 1972.

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

See also

• Spirit duplicator, a later variation on Gestetner's design using a drum filled with solvent instead of ink.